Charter school group calls for tougher laws

Nov. 28, 2012
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by Greg Toppo
@gtoppo
USA TODAY, USA TODAY

by Greg Toppo
@gtoppo
USA TODAY, USA TODAY

In what may be a wake-up call to many of the USA's 6,000 charter schools, an influential group called Wednesday for tougher standards for these independently run public schools, saying lawmakers should have more power to close down underperforming schools.

Since the first charter school opened in 1992, their rise has been meteoric â?? about 2 million students attend charter schools, and many top schools have helped to reinvigorate urban education. Others haven't always outperformed traditional neighborhood schools.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) - which represents the largest number of officials who authorize charter schools in the USA - estimates that as many as 1,300 charter schools are in the lowest 15% of schools statewide, but that fewer than one in seven schools seeking renewal of their charters, or operating agreements, failed to get it last year. That's about double the previous year's rate, but the group says it's still too low, considering recent research showing that many charter schools underperform.

Wednesday the group said it's time to rein in growth and focus on quality. "Charter schools are not the only solution in public education, but we didn't start the charter school movement in order to create more underperforming schools," said Greg Richmond, the association's head. The group said it would push state legislatures to rewrite laws, in effect requiring states to close bad charter schools.

Caprice Young, a former Los Angeles Unified School District board member and onetime head of the California Charter School Association, said the move was "long overdue." She said, "We need to do more of what's working and less of what's not in order to fix public education on a national scale."

Young directs education for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which invests in charter schools in post-Katrina New Orleans, where more than three-fourths of students attend a charter school, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, an advocacy group. Nationwide, more than 100 school districts enroll at least 10% of students in charter schools, the alliance says.

"The charter school idea is predicated on the notion that in exchange for autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic rules, schools would face closure if they fail to meet their academic goals," said Nina Rees, who heads the alliance. She said she supports authorizers' efforts "to get it right, whatever the numbers may be."